Hazards of Friendship
by elations
Summary: After Zuko joins the Gaang at the Western Air Temple, he says something different in his ongoing arguments with Katara. AU. Oneshot.


**AN: So I'm a judge in the pro-bending circuit forum run by Alyssialui, meaning I'm not a competitor. Boo. But the prompts were all so intriguing that I couldn't help but write a little drabble. This isn't an entry by any means, but the prompts I chose were:**

**- The first time someone accidentally hurt someone else.**

**- "Just hold me."**

**- "Don't blink."**

**- ****"The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have."**

**Enjoy! :)**

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><p>The first time Zuko hurt Katara, it was a beautiful day. The sun was bright but not hot, the breeze cool but not chilling. She would've loved to be doing anything else but washing stinky boy laundry in the fountain, but it was an unfortunate necessity.<p>

"But Katara, you're a waterbender! You were practically made for this!" She could hear the echo of Sokka's excuses in her mind and her concentration slipped, a pair of pants shooting out of the swirling ball of water before she could rein in her bending. She watched the pair of pants sail past the pillars and become lost in the abyss below. She hoped with all her might they belonged to her brother.

"And this is why I do my own laundry," she heard a quiet mutter somewhere behind her. She didn't need to turn around to know it was _him_. It's not like she had Toph's gift, but who else was the owner of a raspy voice like that? Not to mention the quiet of his step. It could only be Zuko.

"I wouldn't touch your clothes if you paid me," she growled. He was on the other side of the fountain now and he stiffened in surprise. Embarrassment washed over him as he began furiously scrubbing his clothes. He thought he had been quiet enough, but apparently not.

He didn't say anything and that usually worked to abate Katara's anger towards him, but this was one of those other instances.

"I'm talking to you, or am I too below your station to notice?" She hissed, letting the clean clothes drop into the fountain. Large drops splashed his face and he tried to keep his calm as he wiped them away. He was used to her picking fights with him, it had been this way ever since he joined up with them two weeks ago.

He meant to say something like, "I'm trying to lighten your burden," or something diffusing like that, but his flared temper spoke for him instead.

"I wouldn't pay you for the job you do." His teeth clicked shut and he knew he'd done it now. He knew better than to poke a sleeping moose-lion but he couldn't resist, apparently.

"What's that supposed to mean." Her voice was icy calm. Zuko didn't need to look up, he knew he'd see her with her hands on her hips and death in her eyes. He decided it was still better to keep his mouth shut, now that he couldn't depend on his temper to not betray him.

Katara strode around the fountain to his side and he could practically feel the fury rolling off of her. Maybe he should say something before she hit him.

"You flung someone's pants off of the edge of the temple. Why would anyone trust you to wash their clothes let alone pay you."

"Don't talk to me about trust," she bristled. "I was the first one to trust you, and look what that got me!" Her fists clenched tighter at the memory of their brief bond in the Crystal Catacombs. "It almost killed Aang!" As if he hadn't thought of it already. She sure liked to remind him what a bad person he was.

"I...my actions aren't excusable." Zuko had given up washing his spare change of clothes and stared into the water. How many times had they had some variation of this conversation? But he had never owned up to it so directly. It was thanks to meditating on a dream he had last night of his uncle. He had said, _"The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have."_

Just thinking of the dream was enough to make Zuko ache. He wondered if his uncle was even still alive, because he had betrayed him too. He had betrayed the people who had shown him only kindness and for what? His honor hadn't been restored at all.

"_You hurt me_," he heard her whisper, and it was then that he finally looked up. Her jaw was set but her eyes were moist with newly forming tears.

"I know. I'm sorry." He was so ashamed to have robbed this girl of her trust in him. This girl who was his sisters age, how could that be? How could she be so trusting? Didn't she know better?

Katara didn't say anything else. She hadn't meant to be so honest with him, but he had been more honest with her for the first time in two weeks. His confession had moved her, and she felt the knot of miserable anger begin to loosen for him. She decided to see if that rogue pair of pants had caught on something or landed on a tree far below. He was right, no matter how much she hated it. Someone's pants were AWOL and it was all her fault.

She leaned over the edge just enough to look below. The pants were no where in sight. She tried to summon the water from the drenched cloth but water was everywhere and it was impossible to isolate it. She leaned a little further, squinting to either side of her. Maybe it was caught somewhere else? The stone under her cracked ominously and she froze. This was a sticky situation now wasn't it.

She might make it back to solid ground if she flung herself backward or she might not. It was risky to even shift her weight, or she guessed so. She had seen people on splintering ice before and she guessed her chances of survival weren't so great.

"Don't move," a familiar voice warned her. Of course, Zuko here to save the day. She would've rolled her eyes if she wasn't so grateful.

"I'm not going anywhere." Her voice was more strained than she would like it to be, but what can you do when you're about to plunge to your death? She could hear him tiptoeing closer to her and was about to tell him not to come too close for fear of tumbling them both over the edge when he asked her to stretch out her hand to him.

Slowly she extended her arm behind her, not even chancing a look to see where he was.

"Just hold on to me," he muttered, and she felt his hand grasp hers. There was a momentary relief before the floor crumbled under her.

Katara didn't have time to scream before she felt her side slam against the more stable part of the floor. She wheezed for the air that had been knocked out of her lungs and her shoulder hurt, but she was alive.

Just to be on the safe side, Zuko hauled Katara back to the fountain. No chance of crumbling floors here, no sir. She was slow getting her breath back and wordlessly clutched at her shoulder. Yeah, he'd been afraid of that.

"I think I dislocated it when I pulled you so quickly," he explained.

"Set it," she demanded, her voice still a thin whisper.

"It'll be so quick, don't even blink or you'll miss it." That was his weak attempt at a joke but she seemed to get it. "On three. One, two," Pop! "Three." Katara groaned with the agony of it.

"Never trust a firebender," she panted. "They don't even set your shoulder when they say they will."

"I guess that's one of the hazards," he shrugged unapologetically.


End file.
